Did The Fantastic Four Cartoon Replace The Human Torch Over Child Safety Fears?

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Old issues of the "Fantastic Four" comic book used to come emblazoned with the phrase "The World's Greatest Comics Magazine" on every cover. That's a pretty bold statement, but it's certainly fitting for the superhero team in question. The Fantastic Four were a huge success for Marvel Comics in 1961, blending bizarre cosmic sci-fi stories and melodramatic tales of masked despots with recognizable, "Bickersons"-like family dynamics. The Fantastic Four were a family, and they didn't let their jaunts into deep space interrupt their familial need to snipe at one another. The Thing, The Human Torch, Mr. Fantastic, and the Invisible Woman were the perfect blend.

The Fantastic Four first moved to TV in 1967 via a well-regarded but imminently clunky series produced by Hanna-Barbera. The show only ran for 20 episodes, but it managed to remain ensconced in the memories of the kids who watched it, as it came alongside a slew of other Marvel animated titles. "Spider-Man" was a big hit from the same year, while "The Marvel Super Heroes," an anthology series, had run for 65 episodes the year prior. That last series introduced Captain America, the Hulk, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Iron Man, and Thor into the televised lexicon, so Marvel characters were invading the popular consciousness.

Further attempts to bring the Fantastic Four to the screen were spotty at best, however. In 1978, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises updated the team for "The New Fantastic Four," another one-season wonder, this time lasting only 13 episodes. "The New Fantastic Four" did expand the canon of Marvel characters, but it also made a baffling decision to not include the Human Torch. To fill out the titular Four, the series' creatives instead invented the intelligent robot H.E.R.B.I.E. to replace him.

Why did "The New Fantastic Four" do that? Rumors began to fly that it had nixed the Human Torch because its showrunners had feared he would turn children into arsonists and pyromaniacs. It seemed the Human Torch was too hot for TV.

Except, as noted in Mark Envangier's 2017 biography "Kirby: King of Comics," those rumors weren't actually true.

To a modern Marvel Comics reader, H.E.R.B.I.E. is a natural part of Fantastic Four lore. The cute little semi-sentient robot even appeared in director Matt Shakman's excellent 2025 feature film "The Fantastic Four: First Steps." In 1978, however, he was a brand-new creation, deliberately invented to be a stand-in for the Human Torch on "The New Fantastic Four." It was an unusual swap-out; while the Human Torch could fly and spew flames, H.E.R.B.I.E. was more like R2-D2, able to repair machines and make cute mechanical noises (although some of R2-D2's beeps are apparently quite rude). Needless to say, H.E.R.B.I.E. did not shoot blasts of fire.

Many audiences members at the time merely assumed that the Human Torch was removed because there was something objectionable about the character. Surely, the rumors went, the Human Torch was encouraging young children to play with matches. Some rumors even went so far as to invent a child that had tried lighting themselves on fire in order to be more like the Human Torch. In one version of the rumor, that child even died. However, no such child actually burned themselves alive trying to be like the Human Torch. It was a run-of-the-mill urban myth.

In truth, the decision to remove the Human Torch from "The New Fantastic Four" was nothing more than a boring legal matter. Universal Pictures, you see, had purchased the screen rights to the Human Torch and wanted to give the superhero his own solo movie. It's curious that Universal only wanted to make a film about the Human Torch and not all of the Fantastic Four, but that's what the studio was interested in. It's also worth noting that the Human Torch actually pre-dates the creation of the Fantastic Four, having been introduced in a different iteration in 1939, back when he was originally an android. Who knows, perhaps that was the version of the character Universal really wanted to adapt.

With the rights to the Fantastic Four tied up at another studio, DePatie-Freleng had to come up with a new character. They were called, after all, the Fantastic Four, not the Fantastic Three. As it happens, Fantastic Four co-creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were overseeing "The New Fantastic Four", with Lee serving as an executive producer and Kirby as a storyboard artist. The pair conceived H.E.R.B.I.E. together and included him in the series. This show, incidentally, was the last thing that Kirby ever worked on for Marvel, as he jumped ship to DC Comics thereafter. It's also worth pausing to note that "The New Fantastic Four" featured quite the bizarre panoply of supporting Marvel players. Indeed, Magneto from the X-Men turned up on the series, as did the Inhumans and even the comedic trickster god Impossible Man. It was a wild show.

In 1979, H.E.R.B.I.E. began appearing in "Fantastic Four" comics, making the character canonical. He's been a part of the Fantastic Four comic books ever since, and, as mentioned, is now part of the live-action feature film adaptations too.

The Universal deal to make a Human Torch movie was still in place by 1981, when Marvel Productions released the team-up animated series "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends." That show features Spider-Man, natch, while his Amazing Friends included the X-Men's Iceman and a flying, flame-engulfed young woman named Firestar. The original plan was for Spider-Man to fight alongside Iceman and the Human Torch (which makes sense), but the rights to the Human Torch were still tied up. Hence, series creatives Stan Romita, Jr., Rick Hoberg, and Dennis Marks invented Firestar for the show instead, and she immediately became popular. And just like H.E.R.B.I.E., Firestar eventually began appearing in Marvel's comic books, making her fully canonical as well.

So, no. No one was afraid that a fiery character was inspiring acts of arson. The Human Torch was left out of "The New Fantastic Four" merely because Universal was sitting on the rights to give the character a solo film (one that never actually came to pass).